It is proposed to expand and refine a theoretical model based on principles of associative learning, memory, and hierarchical analyses of behavior. This model has the two-fold purpose of integrating empirical data already available on short-term memory, temporal discrimination, and the local structure of behavior, on the one hand, and pointing to and helping to define significant problems for further empirical research, on the other hand. The model, together with a metatheoretical perspective on the nature of operant behavior called a "molecular" or "structural" point of view, motivates various proposed experiments on memory for parameters of reinforcement, memory for properties of an organism's own recent behavior, the explicit reinforcement of various properties of temporally defined behavioral patterns, and the generalization of previous research on unitized behavioral patterns to different response topographies and species.